Red Bull’s divisive dominance and Fernando Alonso’s stress effect – F1 news round-up
Everyone still hanging there? With another day done, F1’s return to action at next weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix is one step closer.
Reigning double World Champion Max Verstappen is so excited about his home race that he’s already unveiled the special helmet design he will wear at Zandvoort as talk about slowing down his dominant Red Bull team, winners of every race so far in 2023, continues.
Here are the main headlines from today’s news roundup…
Former F1 star expecting FIA to curb Red Bull’s dominance
Dominance in sport. There’s quite a fine line between it being something to admire and something to turn you off.
After 12 wins in a row in 2023 – 13 if you include last year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi – a growing number are reaching that crossover point with Red Bull.
F1 is unique to most sports in the sense that the organisers can rip up the rulebook with the stated aim of destabilising dominant teams, and indeed a single regulation change has been enough to end the Williams, Ferrari, Red Bull (the first time) and Mercedes dynasties over the last 30 years alone.
Speaking exclusively to PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher, former Shadow F1 driver David Kennedy feels that with no other team/driver combination likely to knock Red Bull and Verstappen “off that perch”, the emphasis may soon fall on governing body the FIA to intervene.
As Kennedy so aptly put it: “There’s nothing worse than knowing what the result is going to be.”
Read more:‘Magic’ Red Bull ‘could face FIA intervention’ as dominant run continues
Mario Andretti: Red Bull dominance to be admired
If Kennedy is edging towards one camp when it comes to the subject of Red Bull’s dominance, Mario Andretti is firmly in the other.
In yet another Thomas exclusive, the 1978 World Champion told PlanetF1.com that the perfection Verstappen and his team have managed to achieve captures “the beauty about this sport.”
He told us: “It’s just that somebody just has a little bit of an edge, and whoever is demonstrating that, I have a great respect for, because I know it’s daunting to be able to achieve that.”
If anyone knows all about what it takes to win in motor racing and the respect it commands, it’s Super Mario.
Read more:Exclusive: Mario Andretti delivers verdict on impact of Max Verstappen dominance
Fernando Alonso has made Lance Stroll ‘stressed’ at Aston Martin
Are we going to apologise for packing today’s roundup full of homegrown stories so far? No, dear reader. No, we are not.
So off we go next to On Track GP – the YouTube channel launched in collaboration between PlanetF1.com and DR Sports in 2023 – where Le Mans winner Richard Bradley offered an insight into the inter-team dynamic between Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Stroll was always likely to be up against it alongside the two-time World Champion in 2023, his cause not helped by injuries sustained in a pre-season bike accident, with Alonso scoring almost three times as many points as the Canadian has mustered so far.
理查德认为阿隆索的影响是evid漫步ent even in his interactions over team radio during a race, commenting: “When you listen to him on the radio, he certainly sounds stressed.
“He sounds like the most stressed driver on the grid, maybe that’s just his personality.”
Read more:Lance Stroll dubbed ‘most stressed driver on the grid’ thanks to Fernando Alonso
Otmar Szafnauer speaks out after Alpine exit
Everyone knows by now that Otmar Szafnauer, the recently discarded Alpine team principal, has a way with words.
Who could forget his “two popes” comment on his awkward relationship with Lawrence Stroll at Aston Martin? Or his immediate reaction to losing his job in a very public manner at Spa the other week?
“我总是说:你不能得到九个女人pregnant and hope you have a baby in a month,” he said in a remark that will live long in the memory.
No idea what he meant, of course, but at least it made everyone laugh. Good ol’ Otmar We’ll miss him.
If it was assumed that these were the words of a man in a state of shock at Spa, it will come as great news to learn that Szafnauer has been at it again – this time with something about pirates and navies.
Behind the very amusing analogies, however, is a serious message to the regime at Alpine/Renault who believe they’ll be better off without him.
“I think the senior management at Renault, the CEO, Luca de Meo, wants, as everyone does in Formula 1, success instantly – and unfortunately that’s not how it works in Formula 1,” he told SiriusXM’s Cars & Culture with Jason Stein.
Read more:Otmar Szafnauer takes huge swipe at Alpine management after sudden departure
Red Bull dominance set to continue beyond 2025?
Let’s finish where we started, shall we? With Red Bull winning everything.
All empires fall eventually and it is hoped that Red Bull’s will end in 2026, when F1’s next major rule changes come into effect.
As previously mentioned here, huge tweaks to the regulations have a funny way of bringing down dominant teams – but who’s to say Red Bull will be knocked off their perch in ’26?
A reminder that Mercedes came through the 2017/19/21 rule changes relatively unscathed before ground effect finally got ’em in 2022.
And, on the evidence of Helmut Marko’s latest comments, it seems Red Bull are confident of maintaining their position in 2026 having significantly strengthened the emerging Red Bull Powertrains program and entered into a technical partnership with Ford.
“I don’t think we are technically behind,” he told Motorsport-Total.com. “We have brought in people from Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Cosworth. We have Ford as a partner in the sector. We have absolute top people on the combustion engine. And we have two very bright minds on the electric side.
“In August, we are running a complete combustion engine with MGU-K and battery. There we are miles ahead of Audi, we are miles ahead of Ferrari, and Mercedes is about the same.”
Gulp.
Read more:Watch out Ferrari and Audi: Red Bull’s F1 2026 engine is ‘miles ahead’
